1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information record medium such as an optical disk of a high recording density type, which is capable of recording information such as video information, audio information and the like at a high density, and which is represented by a DVD (Digital Video or Versatile Disk). The present invention also relates to a recording apparatus for recording the information onto the information record medium, and a reproducing apparatus for reproducing the information from the information record medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a so-called LD (Laser Disk) and a so-called CD (Compact Disk) are generalized as optical disks, on which information such as video information, audio information and the like is recorded.
On the LD or the like, the video information and the audio information are recorded together with time information indicating a time at which each information is to be reproduced with respect to a reproduction start position, which each LD or the like has, as a standard position. Thus, other than a general normal reproduction to reproduce the recorded information in the order of recording, various special reproductions are possible, such as a reproduction to extract and listen to an only desirable music out of a plurality of recorded musics, a reproduction to listen to the recorded musics in a random order and so on, in case of the CD, for example.
However, in the above mentioned LD or the like, for example, there are problems that it is not possible to perform a variegated reproduction, such as a search operation of jumping to a forward portion by a predetermined time, in the course while an audience is reproducing a still picture, to thereby carry out a search action and other flexible operations, and that it is not possible to reproduce while carrying out a time management of displaying an elapsed time from the beginning of the record information during a still picture reproduction according to an author's intention of the record information.
This is because there is no reproduction control information including time information and search information to control the reproduction of the record information between information pieces of the above mentioned record information.
Further, in a conventional LD or the like, at a time of reproducing a still picture of the record information according to the author's intention, there may be a case where it is required to record a plurality of same still picture informations by an amount corresponding to a time duration while the still picture is to be reproduced. In this case, a record area of the record medium cannot be utilized effectively. This results in a certain limitation to the amount of the record information that can be recorded.
On the other hand, various proposals and developments are being made as for the DVD, as an optical disk in which the memory capacity is improved by about ten times without changing the size of the optical disk itself as compared with the aforementioned conventional CD. However, the search operation of jumping to the forward portion by the predetermined time, in the course while the audience is reproducing the still picture, to thereby carry out the search action, or the reproducing operation while carrying out the time management of displaying the elapsed time from the beginning of the record information during the still picture reproduction according to the author's intention of the record information, as mentioned above, is not proposed or developed yet. Further, in the technical art of the DVD, the actuality is such that a person having an ordinary skill in this art does not even recognize the subject itself to enable the search operation in the course of the still picture reproduction and the reproducing operation while carrying out the time management during the still picture reproduction.